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Monday, October 24, 2011

Killer Elite

A retired elite special-ops agent (Jason
Statham) is called back into action when his friend and mentor (Robert
de Niro) is taken captive and the only chance of freeing him is to
dispatch the three highly trained assassins responsible for the deaths
of the captor's sons.

What we thought:

"Based on a
true story". If ever there was a phrase that has no place in front of a
Jason Statham movie, that particular stamp of "respectability" must
surely be it. Statham's stock in trade is over the top, hyper-real
action films that allow him to show off his considerable charms and
physical prowess without allowing silly things like real-world physics
or believability to get in his way. Killer Elite, however, has
the dreaded "based on a true story" emblazoned all over its trailers,
movie posters and advertising – to say nothing of the beginning of the
film itself – and is pretty much doomed from the start.

This may,
of course, seem like a barely concealed criticism of Jason Statham's
lack of acting range, but range has never been what "The Stath" is
about. He is a charismatic and endlessly likeable action star and, when
you consider just how rare a breed that is these days, it is hardly
something to be scoffed at. Regardless of what else is right or wrong
about the film, director Gary McKendry (who actually does a fairly solid
job with his debut feature film) clearly understands his star's
strengths and he seems more than willing to stand back and allow Statham
to do what he does best.

Statham's Danny is an anti-hero we
never stop rooting for as he punches, kicks and blasts his way through a
veritable torrent of baddies (or, at least, "not-entirely-goodies")
with all the bone-crunching and odds-defying panache that we have come
to expect from the action genre's leading man. Yes, it's completely
unbelievable and more than a little bonkers but, damnit, this is what we
want!

Sadly, what we want and what we get for the rest of the
film is a rather different matter. The traditionally explosive Statham
set pieces are as fun as ever but they are entirely at odds with what
the film is supposed to (apparently) be about. In those unfortunate
moments when Statham is not busting heads – or, for that matter, when
Clive Owen isn't being intensely intense or when De Niro isn't being
intensely De Niro – the film constantly gestures towards the
complexities of real-world espionage and moral grey areas of that world
without ever truly engaging with this tricky subject matter.

I made similar complaints about another Statham film to come out this year, the similarly middling and just plain similar The Mechanic,
but hopefully these films are only a small detour, rather than an
entirely misjudged change of direction, towards bringing "credibility"
to someone who really, really doesn't need it. As it is, Killer Elite
is simply a confounding, tonally confused misfire of a film that aims
for intelligence and relevance but is at its best when at its most
trashy.

Until The Stath returns to his delectably fruity B-movie
heritage, I guess his fans are simply going to have to settle for the
small pleasures to be found in these otherwise unremarkable films. Spy
flick fans, incidentally, are almost definitely better off waiting for
the very promising Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for their espionage kicks as Killer Elite is about as effective in this area as Johnny English Reborn.

About This Blog and Its Author

My name is Ilan Preskovsky and I've been working as a journalist/ writer/ critic for the past six (?!) years. When I'm not writing feature articles for Jewish Life Magazine or trying to scrounge up work like every other poor freelancer, I like to write about movies - and, indeed, sometimes even watch them. I write about them both professionally, as a critic for Channel 24, and as an amateur enthusiast for this site. I also love comic books, music, novels, certain non-fiction books and TV and I may even write about them from time to time.

This here blog (named with all the swagger and bubbly self-confidence for which I am barely known) is simply a collection of my various writings, both professional and amateur, and therefore should be taken as the opinions of one man and one man only. This man, of course, in case you were wondering, is a middle class, South African, (Modern) Orthodox Jew with a rather unhealthy love for pop culture and passionate, humanist writing. But, hey, isn't everyone?

Because Everybody Else Has One is consistently inconsistently updated and is no doubt full of errors when not edited properly, but do feel free to leave comments, both about specific posts and the site in general, and let me know what you think. Agree? Disagree? Want to burn my house down with me in it (I'm looking at you Underworld fans)? Bring it on. Bring it all on.